Monday, October 24, 2016

Anti-Masonic Comic Creator Jack Chick Dies

A chapter - albeit, a small one - has closed in the bizarre world of anti-Masonry. According to his Facebook page, comic book religious tract artist Jack T. Chick joined the Choir Invisible yesterday at the age of 92.Chick was a California evangelist who took up the pen and brush against any religious belief, tradition, or philosophy that was at odds with his own brand of fundamentalist, evangelical Protestantism. Over five decades, his company purportedly distributed more than 750 million of his tiny comic books (once described by media critic Steven Brill as "religious pornography") that railed against Catholicism, Judaism, Mormonism, Islam, homosexuals, divorce, Dungeons & Dragons, Harry Potter, Freemasonry, and many others, at less than two bits apiece. He eventually published more than 150 different titles in 100 languages.He was especially savage towards Roman Catholicism (referring to the communion host as a "death cookie"), and blamed many of the world's problems on that faith, including the Ku Klux Klan (!), the Holocaust, and world Communism.Unsuspecting "sinners" often found these little gems of paranoia, brimstone, and hatred tucked under their windshield wipers, stuck between the beans in the canned vegetable aisle, or jammed into the seat pocket on their vacation flight. Sadly, some even made their way into care packages sent to U.S. troops overseas.

"Oops! There's Baphomet again!"

In the Masonic world, his tracts That's Baphomet?, The Curse of Baphomet (now out of print), and The Unwelcome Guest were notorious for perpetuating the 19th century Leo Taxil hoax, among other hoary whoppers. Albert Pike got strategically misquoted (or just plain had quotes invented), "Satan" took up residence in lodge meetings, the Eastern Star ladies were accused of witchcraft, and even Shriners got a swipe for their red fezzes, because, according to Chick, the Muslims originally dipped them into the blood of Christians. Unfortunately, the pervasiveness of his little booklets perpetuated this madness to an unsuspecting public, and plenty of Masons over the years have had to answer questions from nervous friends and relatives who got their delusional information straight out of Chick's tracts.According to the company's website, they intend to keep distributing his miniature missives, despite the loss of their founder.Requiēscat In Pāce

5 comments:

Over twenty years ago, in Seoul, South Korea, some one put the Baphomet tract on the car windshield of a brother Mason while we were attending a Scottish Rite meeting. The discovery was made after the meeting and due to the fact that all the brethren present were well-informed, we had a good laugh before enjoying an evening out in town.

ATTENTION!Kindly sign your comment posts. Anonymous postings on Masonic topics have the same status as cowans and eavesdroppers, as far as I am concerned, and may be deleted if I don't recognize you or if I'm in a grumpy mood.

A mythic past. A visionary future. A legendary brotherhood.

Freemasonry is the largest, oldest and best-known gentleman's fraternity in the world. Historically, it is based on the Medieval stonemason guilds who built the great castles and cathedrals of Europe. Mythologically it is founded upon the building of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem, as told in the Old Testament of the Bible. Modern Freemasons likewise use the tools, traditions and terminology of those earlier stonemasons as allegories for building Temples in the hearts of men.

It's said that we are a secret society. We do indeed have secrets—secrets that each individual man has to discover for and about himself.

At its core, Freemasonry is simply an attempt to make the world a better place, one man at a time. For each man, it can become as simple or as complicated as he himself desires.

It's not for everybody.

Maybe it's for you.

"Brother Chris Hodapp's [blog]...is thought provoking and is often the first place on the web where new ideas and matters of interest are posted."

Chris received his higher education at Indiana University, the University of Southern California, Los Angeles Valley College, California State University at Northridge, and Indiana/Purdue University at Indianapolis.

He spent twenty-three years in advertising as a commercial filmmaker for Dean Crow Productions, shooting and editing close to 1,000 commercials, music videos and feature films. He has written scripts for corporate and non-profit clients, and his voice has appeared in countless television and radio commercials.

He was the editor and a contributor in 2004-5 to "Laudable Pursuit: A 21st Century Response to Dwight Smith"by the Knights of the North, a Masonic leadership think-tank focussing on modern lodge solutions. He has written for Indianapolis Monthly, Masonic Magazine, Templar History, the Scottish Rite Journal, the Knight Templar Magazine, the Indiana Freemason , the Phylaxis, and numerous other publications.

Hodapp and Alice Von Kannon developed episode outlines for the History Channel program, Brad Meltzer's Decoded in 2010, and contributed material on conspiracies and secret societies for TruTV and the American Heroes Channel. They have both appeared on National Public Radio, the History Channel, Discovery, National Geographic, Smithsonian, and the American Heroes Channel - most recently in 2017 on America: Facts vs Fiction.

Chris and Alice live in Indianapolis with their very French poodle Wiley, who has them both answering to basic commands.

M.A.T.S.O.L.

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If you are a Freemason and are lifting material from this website without attribution, shame on you.